People's Defense Forces

The People's Defense Forces (HPG), formerly called the Kurdistan National Liberty Army (ARGK), are the armed forces of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). They were founded in 1984, fighting for the cultural and political rights of Turkish Kurds.

History
The People's Defense Forces were founded in 1984 by Abdullah Ocalan, the first Secretary-General of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and their goal was to fight or the cultural and political rights of Kurds in Turkey. Their first battle was on 15 August 1984, when they killed a Turkish soldier and two policemen. The organization waged an insurgency in the 1980s before moving to urban warfare in the 1990s. The PKK was declared a terrorist organization by NATO and the European Union due to its insurgent attacks against Turkish policemen, and they were also accused of selling drugs in 2011 by the United States. The HPG signed a ceasefire with the Turkish Army in 2013, and they focused on fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northern Syria and Iraq during the Syrian Civil War and Iraqi Civil War, two wars that were intertwined when the Islamic State tore down the border fences in 2014 and connected their territory together, fighting a war on two fronts. HPG forces helped to relieve the siege of Kobani in November 2014-January 2015, and they also fought the Islamic State forces in northern Iraq, helping the YPG and other Peshmerga units.

The HPG grew to 15,000 active fighters in 2014 according to the Turkish government, including both men and women. Every year, they earned $555,450,000, some of which was allegedly earned through the drug trade. The PKK signed a ceasefire with Turkey on 21 March 2013 and participated in a peace process, although in July 2015 the HPG killed two off-duty Turkish police officers. The Turkish Air Force responded by bombing five targets of theirs, including villages near their Qandil Mountains base.